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SPIRIT

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Blog Entries posted by SPIRIT

  1. SPIRIT

    Ten Years Ago...

    By SPIRIT,

    Today is the day, folks. Ten years.
     
    Ten years since what?
     
    Ten years since SPIRIT was the undisputed WORLD CHAMPION of the Spinner Challenge on Bionicle.com!
     
     
     
    Let me set the stage... *old timey projector sound and radio voice*
     
    The year was 2006. In the twilight days of the Hordika storyline, LEGO released a pretty simple online game where the Toa Hordika would battle each other with Rhotuka. It was one of those "choose an attack site and choose a defense site" type games. Zero skill. Complete luck. And the best strategy to win is just to play as many games as possible.
     
    As luck would have it, I was sick and had to stay home from school the day the game came out. Within a matter of hours, I was crowned World Champion by my persistence and ability to click menu buttons in a Flash game. I saved that screenshot for an occasion such as this.
     
    I am no longer the world champion. My day has come and gone. But at least I know that for a very brief moment, I used to be the very best... like no one ever was...
     
     
    But wait, why is your LEGO username "BackCap"?
     
    Ah yes. That is another tale for another day.
     
    This is former Spinner Challenge World Champion SPIRIT signing off.
     
    (Also if you need me to promote your breakfast cereal or sports drink, I'm totally up for it.)
  2. SPIRIT

    The Powers That Be

    By SPIRIT,

    Pohatu: Well, it appears that Lesovikk may have killed the ruler of the Matoran underworld.
     
    Kopaka: If you ask me... this is one heck of a crime. B)
     
    YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
  3. SPIRIT

    Winter 2010 Adventures

    By SPIRIT,

    This last couple of weeks has been quite the whirlwind for me. Millions of things due in school, not to mention Reading Week, so here's what I've been up to lately.
     
    Just before reading week, my professors decided to make everything due at once. Wasn't that nice of them? After finally stressing and fighting my way through a seemingly endless pile of assignments, it was suddenly Reading Week, but it was no time for relaxing.
     
    No sir, no relaxing at all. Some people from my church and I would be going to the distant snowbound lands of central Manitoba on the very fringes of civilization itself. We went there to go visit four Native reserves so that we could organize some game days for the kids as well as second-hand clothing sales.
     
    It's a very different world all the way up there. Alcoholism and cycles of poverty and abuse are unfortunately rampant, not to mention extremely overpriced goods and a lack of good public services. Despite all that, they manage to survive. The kids were really happy to see us, though, and running around the gym was just like being back at camp again.
     
    And today I went to court about the accident I had this summer. I chose not to go to trial and we managed to get the charge down to 2 demerit points and an $85 fine. It was a very stressful experience, to say the least, as I had no idea what was going on and the guy representing me kept leaving randomly. On the bright side, I did find out that in Canada, we don't say "your honour", we say "your worship". Still, though, I'd have been happier not knowing if it meant I didn't have to go through all this...
     
    So that's what I've been up to lately.
     
    Coming soon:
    The last few chapters of my TLR Spoof. An overhaul of the Software Forum rules. Me actually updating the BRC timeline for the first time in months. Me finishing that pronunciation guide... hopefully.
  4. SPIRIT

    That Awkward Moment

    By SPIRIT,

    That awkward moment when you're pretty sure you've Streetpassed someone you know, but it's so improbable that they would have a 3DS that you're not sure how to bring it up in conversation with them.
     
    Is there a lengthy German word to describe this emotion?
  5. SPIRIT

    CIV VI

    By SPIRIT,

    Video games industry.
     
    Guys.
     
    I have my final exams when you're releasing all these games.
     
    Have mercy.
     
     
     
     
    Speaking of which, anyone here play Civ V?
  6. SPIRIT

    Nowhere To Hide

    By SPIRIT,

    The great SPIRIT Empire grows ever larger as another forum is added to my control. Quiver in fear as Bionicle Software gets a new moderator: me. I can only imagine the high-jinx that will ensue now that I'm working with Dr. Bionicle; races to see who can close a particular topic first and whatnot. Bets can be placed at any time, just send the money to me and I'll sort everything out.
     
    Basically, here's what happened: Black Six IMed me yesterday and asked me if I'd be willing to take on another forum. I obliged and he gave me a choice between M&B and Software. It was a pretty tough decision, but I decided that since Bionicle Heroes was coming out soon, Software would start to see quite a bit of action in the upcoming days.
     
    Well, let's hope this works out as well as my other forums. And just think, if Black Six keeps up his pattern, I'll be getting another forum in about two weeks from now.
  10. SPIRIT

    I Are The Champions

    By SPIRIT,

    I've seen many theories
    Time after time
    I've some closed topics
    Been in the light of lime
    And bad mistakes
    I've made a few
    I've had my share theories dis-proven
    But I've come through
     
    I are the champions - my friends
    And I'll keep on fighting - till the end
    I are the champions
    I are the champions
    No time for losers
    'Cause I are the champions - of the world
     
    Not sure if you've seen yet, but I just won a Gold Key to Nongu Award!!!!! :winner: :winner:
     
    I'd like to thank the academy- *is cut off by music*
     
     
     
    Anyway, in the realm of PSA production, I've been having troubles with the songs. Last time you might have noticed that sometimes my voice didn't sync perfectly with the music; this was a recording error that I have been trying to solve. I've also strained my voice quite a bit in the recording (when the PSA comes out, you'll see why) so now I actually keep a bottle of honey beside the computer when I record to soothe my throat. Plus, if it's good enough for Winnie the Pooh, it's good enough for me.
  11. SPIRIT
    So I actually had a really good April 1st, but I worry that no one will believe me.
     
    The day began with an interview with the voice of Umarak. That guy is a total riot. I don't want to spoil too much from that interview, but it's definitely worth listening to when it comes out in a few weeks.
     
    Then I had an amazing game of Civilization: Beyond Earth -- Rising Tide wherein the massive Korean navy totally demolished anything it ran into. The Americans were destroyed by giant lobsters.
     
    And to cap things all off, I won first prize in a Harry Potter trivia contest.
     
     
    All in all, it was a very good day, just not a good day to have it on.
  13. SPIRIT
    The day was December 25th, 2002; Christmas Day, if memory serves.
     
    A 12 year old boy who was not yet known as SPIRIT online received Pokémon: Crystal Version as a gift from his parents under the guise of Santa Claus (in order to fool his younger sister into believing that magic and wonder were real). This boy had already played Gold and Silver Versions. Why did he then ask for Crystal, which was effectively the exact same game with only a few changes? Certainly not even he knows...
     
    Regardless, this young boy could not have known the quest he would be sent on because of this so called "gift". Or was it perhaps...
     
    A CURSE?!
     
    For little did the Boy-Who-Would-Be-Called-SPIRIT know, but one of the new features in Pokémon: Crystal Version was a Battle Tower.
     
    "Gadzooks!" eclaimèd he. For where once there had been a sparse rock-face on the 40th Route of the Region of Johto, there now stood a mighty edifice stretching for the sky, as if to mock Arceus himself. "Perchance I shall return anon upon the completion of mine main campaign storyline," said he prior to embarking upon a seaworthy Pocket Monster and traversing the seas of the 40th and 41st Routes of the Johto Region.
     
    And yea did he return upon the completion of his main campaign storyline. Spake he to the smartly-dressed attendant who said unto he: "thou shalt bringeth with thee only three Pokémon. No more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt bring, and the number of the bringing shall be three. Four shalt thou not bring, neither bring thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out."
     
    "Fair maiden," replièd he. "Thou shouldst not fret thineself, for verily I say unto thee: I am the Master of the Monsters of the Pocket. Upon mine breast are pinned one score less four badges from the regions of Johto and Kanto. I have defeated the Team of Rockets, the Four who are Elite, and the man who calls himself Red. All have fallen to me and my power, as they shall again this day."
     
    And so the Boy-Who-Would-Be-Called-SPIRIT chose his mightiest Monsters of the Pocket. Their names and species are lost to history, but the chronicles are quite clear about the use of a Typhlosion (because let's be honest, Fire Types are best types).
     
    The Boy-Who-Would-Be-Called-SPIRIT charged into battle with his loyal beast at his side. His Typhlosion that he had raised from a tiny Cyndaquil. His Typhlosion who had been by his side battling every trainer in the game. His Typhlosion who had never lost a fight.
     
    His first opponent sent out a Miltank.
     
    "Ah yes, the Tank of Mil," scoffed the Boy-Who-Would-Be-Called-SPIRIT. "My old foe. I have seen your kind before. I know your allegiance to the one called Whitney. I was not afeared then and I am not afeared now! Go! Typhlosion! Use Flamethrower!"
     
    But his opponent simply said, "Miltank! Use Surf!"
     
    It was all over in a matter of seconds. The Boy-Who-Would-Be-Called-SPIRIT had never seen a Miltank so swift. His entire team of champions were taken down by a simple cow. He vowed his revenge that day. He would not be bested by a cow. TYPHLOSION WOULD NOT BE DEFEATED IN VAIN.
     
     
    Many years would pass and with them, many more Pokémon games would be released, each with its own Battle Tower or an equivalent. Try as he might, The Boy-Who-Was-Finally-Called-SPIRIT failed time after time after time. Every time victory would seem within his grasp, the A.I. would come up with some trick or scheme to pry victory from his grasp.
     
    Eventually, he would learn the existence of the Values of Effort, the Values of the Individual, and the Smogon University Overused and Uber Tier Lists of Pokémon. Yet even with this knowledge it was not enough.
     
    He came close in 2011, when he beat the Battle Subway in the Doubles competition using a rain-based team, but the victory felt hollow. Drizzle Politoed was a very cheap strategy and spamming Surf constantly was no fun. Plus, the true test was to win the Singles competition, not these new fangled Double Battles.
     
    But he did not give up hope.
     
    At long last, a beacon of light in the darkness: Pokémon: Omega Ruby Version made breeding Pokémon a breeze. Improved breeding mechanics, move tutors, and an infinite cycling path just outside the Daycare. This was it. If it was going to happen, it would be here.
     
    It took time to find a well-balanced team, but at long last a team of an Eelektross, a Gengar, and an Aggron holding some Aggronite began to show some promise. Sure, they had their issues losing to unlucky Random Number Generation (one battle they all died to Swagger. SWAGGER!), but they seemed to achieve victory more surely than any other team SPIRIT had used.
     
    Then came the fateful night.
     
    SPIRIT should have been studying for exams, but he had no idea he would get this far. He got past all the trainers, even the one with Legendaries that sometimes appears unfairly at Rank 42. Then he beat Rank 49. He tried not to get too excited. He had been here before and lost many a time. The Battle Chatelaines used powerful Legendary Pokémon and had a surprising amount of luck on their side. Now was not the time for mistakes...
     
     
     
    The battle lasted a mere 5 turns.
     
     
     
     
    And when the dust settled...
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    HE HAD WON!
     
    TEN TRILLION POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR! THE DEATH STAR BLEW UP! THE FIRELORD LOST HIS BENDING! MAKUTA GOT MOONED!
     
    Where once sat a man on a couch now sat a true Pokémon Master... on a couch. So impressed with his battling prowess, were the Non Player Characters, that they erected a monument in SPIRIT's honour in the Battle Maison lobby. And trainers from all around would look at it and say, "that's Phil's boy! That's right!"
     
    And with that, his 13 year long quest had ended. He had finally beaten a Battle Tower on Singles (or its most recent equivalent). The Typhlosion from Crystal had long since been deleted when the game cartridge's internal batteries died, but now its spirit was at rest.
     
     
    And all was well.
     
     
     
     
     
    tl;dr beat the Battle Maison on Singles. Check it out, yo: ML8W-WWWW-WW3X-8SBV
  14. SPIRIT

    My Ideal Squirrel

    By SPIRIT,

    This is what people are doing in the blogs these days, right?
     
     
    My ideal squirrel would be an eastern grey squirrel with a black coat. It would have a thick, bushy tail, and it would be able to bring me snacks or grab things from across the room that I'm too lazy to get myself. He could live in the tree in my yard and attack trespassers with acorns.
     
    Then when people complain, I could just say:
     
    "Wow, a squirrel threw an acorn at you? That's nuts!"
  15. SPIRIT

    Strange Bionicle Find

    By SPIRIT,


    Stories
    Recently I managed to find someone selling the Bionicle Quest for Makuta board game online. It was in pretty good condition. An excellent addition to my collection.
    I also picked up a few other board games. Just something to do with the kids I work with. One of the games was Monopoly. What did I find inside the box?
    A single Cordak bullet.
    The evidence speaks for itself. Family game night turned violent, the Toa Mahri intervened, and there were no survivors. 😔
    Open and shut case.
    Bake him away, toys.
  16. SPIRIT

    Bionicle Book Bonanza

    By SPIRIT,

    Today I went to my local Chapters and purchased three new BIONICLE Books: Power Play, Legacy of Evil, and the Official Guide to BIONICLE.
     
    Power Play was quite interesting indeed- a nice look at the Inika, their powers, and their personalities. Basically it goes along the lines of Ignition #3, but that's okay because it goes into much more detail and the scene with Vezon at the end is MUCH creepier.
     
    The Official Guide to BIONICLE was surprisingly more useful than I thought it would be. It has many colour pictures that are now rare and hard to find. There is also some interesting information on the Toa Nuva that isn't too jumbled up by Wiki entries and the likes.
     
    Legacy of Evil was a fascinating read. I don't know how much about it I'm allowed to say, but it certainly explained A LOT about the way things are and filled several gaping holes in the storyline.
     
    Well that's about it- I don't want to spoil too much because you should all go out and buy the books yourselves (especially if you want BIONICLE Legends #7 to come out ).
     
     
    Oh my, what short paragraphs I have here...
  17. SPIRIT

    P S A Update

    By SPIRIT,

    Things are going great with the newest PSA (despite the fact that Dr. Bionicle and -Chicken Little- still owe me their lines ) and if this keeps up, you should expect a release before the end of summer. Thanks to the Rayg 2.5 kit, the animation is going to be much better in this one (even if it is only people walking on and off screen), however, as the kit is not yet complete in certain areas, I've had to resort to using 2.0 or simply just improvising in some parts. The whole thing is probably going to be very big when it's done, both in file size and in length (it's a five page long script and it's so far shaping up to be around 8 minutes long, but quite possibly longer) so I'm looking into how to add a preloader.
     
    Well, that's all for now. Hope the board comes back online soon.
     
    EDIT: -Chicken Little- just sent in his lines yesterday. Only one more cast member to go. *glares*
  18. SPIRIT

    Mwa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

    By SPIRIT,

    Well, my horrible week without TV has finally come to a close. I recently received a new one, which is much bigger than the old one and HD to boot. It's got a whole bunch of cool, new features and it even has a headphone port! The best part of this port is that I can now record music and other sounds off my TV (specifically ones from the BIONICLE movies, if you catch my drift ). My TV can also freeze a particular frame, adjust the screen quality, and even become sensitive to light (a feature which my dad thinks is the best thing since unsliced bread). All in all, it seems that five days without TV was more than enough of a sacrifice for the new one I have now.
  19. SPIRIT

    Bs01 Is Back!

    By SPIRIT,

    Finally, after nearly six months, BionicleSector01 is back. I really missed all the reference materials there and found it really hard to have to research things elsewhere (like on the real Wikipedia ). Anyway, this time around, I'm an Adviser. Not quite sure what that means, but from what I understand, it was pretty much what I was doing before the site when down anyway. Aside from the fact that I'm now BS01 staff, I have now apparently added another forum to my growing empire (I feel like a Barraki at times ). Yup, the BionicleSector01 forum is now mine to control. Not that I can really do much, being only a Forum Assistant, but it's still a nice feeling. So at last count, I'm at 5 forums, tied with bonesiii and Kex for world domination.
  20. SPIRIT

    Important Inbox Lesson

    By SPIRIT,

    Today I thought it would be a good idea to go through my e-mail inbox and see if there was anything I should delete. A few minutes in, I was shocked to find an audition and an audio question for Treespeak on the Air both dating back several months! Quickly I sifted through all the episodes of the show as well as my PMs, but found nothing to indicate that I had done anything with these e-mails or even replied to them. Frantically, I sent PMs to the members from whom the e-mails were sent and waited for a response. Luckily, it turned out that in both cases, it had already been discussed and I had just forgotten about it. :annoyed2: In an ironic twist of fate, my worry about all this made me forget to ask my dad if he could pick up a copy of Bionicle Legends 3 for me on his way to Chapters.
     
    Well, I hope you can all learn from my misfortune so get out there and delete as many e-mails as you can!
  21. SPIRIT

    42

    By SPIRIT,

    I finally ordered the Inika today. I know I said that I was going to order them when they first came out on Shop @ Home, but the combination of the S&T Contest and my vacation drove it from my mind. According to the site, they should be arriving in about two weeks because of the backorder, but I can wait.
     
    Now you might be asking why I entitled this entry "42". Well, as all Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy readers know, 42 is the answer of life, the universe, and everything. Now the scary thing is that the price ended up being X dollars and 42 cents. Even scarier, my parents deducted the money I eared this week (see previous entry) from the cost, but there was still $42 left for me to pay. I think that's a little more than a coincidence.
  22. SPIRIT

    The Cycle

    By SPIRIT,

    I should make cool stuff to post on BZP.
     
    Hmm, I should really do my homework.
     
    Nah, that's boring, why don't I just play video games instead?
     
    Oh man, why did I spend so much time playing video games? I'll just do my homework tomorrow.
     
     
    It's tomorrow now, and this is why we don't have nice things.
  23. SPIRIT

    Wireless Success

    By SPIRIT,

    Well, it took some fiddling about, but I've finally managed to get my Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector working again, which means that now I can start playing Nintendo DS games against people over the Internet once more. If you have any of the games listed in the content block marked Gaming Info, drop me a PM and hopefully we'll be able to face each other. I'm particularly keen on getting a game of Civilization Revolution going to see if beating the computer on Deity level is actually something to be proud of.
  24. SPIRIT

    Flash Plans

    By SPIRIT,

    Today I finally finished that Flash movie I told you about (link) and now I can move on with my BZP life. What with the glowing response this movie got, I think I can safely say that I will be making another one... eventually. My ultimate plan is to make a series that continues from where my comedies left off, but I can't start until Little Miss Krahka finishes the sprites for the Director and GregF (but I'm patient and willing to cut her lots of slack because of her generous offer and skill). Since it will have practically every Bionicle character that there are sprites for, it'll probably end up having over 30 members in it as voice actors. Until then, however, I'm going to work on making an über banner so that I won't ever need to put a zillion links in my sig. If I can format it, I might even open up a banner shop.
     
    Life with Flash is good. B)
  25. SPIRIT

    Sidorak

    By SPIRIT,

    Did you ever hear the tragedy of King Sidorak the Wise?
     
    I thought not. It's not a story the Toa would tell you. It's a Brotherhood legend. Sidorak was a King of the Visorak Horde, so powerful and so wise he could use his Herding Blade to influence the Visorak to steal life... He had such a knowledge of the Visorak that he could even keep the ones he cared about from Keetongu...
     
    The Brotherhood of Makuta is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural...
     
    He became so powerful... the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his queen everything he knew, then his queen killed him with Keetongu. Ironic, he could save others from Keetongu, but not himself.
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